Surviving and Thriving at Tobacco Road

I am reading a book, “Deep Survival,” by Laurence Gonzalez, which addresses the question of who lives and who dies and why when faced with extreme circumstances. In a survival situation, there are things one must do to prevail, and most cannot do them. A navy seal commander in the book tells the author, “the Rambo types are the first to go.” Don’t think just because you are good at one thing, it makes you good at other things. Staying humble is key, as is fortitude and patience, but most of all it is the willingness to do one’s best in any circumstance given to you beyond your own control. Any extreme emotion is the enemy, because you have to think, plan, and act, and you have to do those things correctly; in extreme cases, you may only get one chance. One does not have to think too hard about how these concepts apply not only to F3 (or Spartan or GoRuck), but also many different aspects of work and family life.

This in mind and heart, 6 PAX showed up to play with some toys today at Tobacco Road. With all the GoRuck, Spartan, and F3 stuff in my truck, my wife likes to joke that it looks like I’m headed to Kabul when I load it up. I prefer to refer to these heavy uglies as my toys. Any euphemism will do to lessen the load, right? In “Deep Survival,” two key components of what sets survivors apart from the dead are 1) humor in extreme pain or seemingly insurmountable circumstances; and 2) the counting of one’s blessings. We would do both today.

So while it wasn’t really toddler time at Tobacco Road, it certainly felt like it as we had so many toys to play with, but boy they were heavy! We took turns and spent quality time at each station, like any good toddlers, and ultimately formed a train of pain (a pain train?) in our wake. No one wanted to ruck beforehand, so I decided to ruck afterwards (humblebrag alert) but it was really a terrible decision because what came before it really sucked, and zero funs were had by all.